Transcript: Mayor de Blasio Delivers Remarks at Boys and Girls High School Graduation Ceremony

June 25, 2015

Mayor Bill de Blasio: Thank you. Thank you so much. I just want to take a moment, first of all, to say so much good is happening today and one of the reasons is great leadership. What I have seen just over this last year from Principal Wiltshire is the kind of leadership that moves mountains, that inspires people, that changes things that people say couldn’t be changed. You’ve been blessed to have a great leader and the future of this school is bright because of it. Let’s thank our principal for all he has done.

[Applause]

And for everyone who has been a part of the Boys and Girls family for years and years, you have had a champion. It didn’t matter whether the times were easy or times were tough, he stood by this school and it has stood by this community. And we are blessed to have him here – former Councilman, former Assemblyman Al Van, thank you for your leadership.

[Applause]

Congratulations graduates.

[Applause]

We are so proud of you today. Proud is just bubbling over in this room today for all of you. You’re giving us all such a good feeling. And for me, it’s just a joy to be with you and share this with you. Now, graduates, you’ve heard before that you have to remember those who helped you get there – parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, everyone – everyone who helped you. And I remind you, you saw them help you in a lot of ways and there’s a lot of things you didn’t see – all the moments they had your back, all the moments they encouraged you and provided love and support, all the sacrifices that sometimes you didn’t even know they were making on your behalf, but they did it because they believed in you and they wanted to see this day come. So I want you to, one more time, get on your feet and applaud all your family members for all they have done.

[Applause]

Now, I say to the families – to the families, to my fellow parents especially – as some of you may know, I had a graduation myself last week – Dante de Blasio. I said I had to borrow a phrase from LeBron James and say that Dante de Blasio is taking his hair and his talents to Yale University.

[Applause]

And I said to the parents at the Brooklyn Tech graduation, I said, you know, we’re all feeling so much. And all the family members – we’re feeling so much today. We’re feeling so much pride. We’re feeling so much emotion. So I’m going to offer something here and I want the parents and the family members to join me in this. We’re all going to say something together to the graduates. And I want you first – when I did this at Brooklyn Tech, I said Dante’s name so I want you first – every parent every family member, say right now the name of the graduate from your family today.

[Commotion]

They are – they’re enthusiastic.

[Commotion]

Alright, parents and family members, you’re doing very well so far. Okay. Now, I’ve got four lines – four lines I want you to repeat after me. Here we go. Parents and family members, one, two, three – here we go. You make me proud.

Audience: You make me proud.

Mayor: You give me such joy.

Audience: You give me such joy.

Mayor: You turned out alright.

Audience: You turned out alright.

Mayor: Your future is bright.

Audience: Your future is bright.

Well done, parents. Well done, family members.

[Applause]

Now graduates, I want to talk about you. I want to talk about what you’ve achieved, the hard work you’ve put in, the focus, the dedication. And your graduation marks a rebirth for Boys and Girls High School.

[Applause]

So you’ve done something so powerful for your own path in life. You’ve done something that has made your family so proud. But you’ve also done something for this school. You’ve been examples of what will be. It’s no ordinary graduation. There are more than twice as many of you in a cap and gown today than were expected to be here at the beginning of the year.

[Applause]

In other words, graduates, you had defied expectations. You have proved the critics wrong and I look forward to you doing that many times in your life ahead. You have epitomized what is good about Boys & Girls and this rich, extraordinary history. The people have come out of here – a lot of people who are not famous and did great things, and then some people who are very famous and did great things – Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, the first African-American woman to run for President of the United States.

[Applause]

– one of the greatest American composers of classical music ever, Aaron Copeland; Lenny Wilkins, the great NBA player and coach. Great talent has come from this place and great talent is coming from this place again.

A lot of folks had counted this school out. Now graduates, you know there will be struggles in life. That is a given. And schools can struggle too—just like people can, just like families can, but we don’t count families out when they have a struggle, do we? We believe that they can get back on their feet. We believe, sometimes with a little help and a little direction, people can get back on their feet and do great things, sometimes go farther than anyone ever knew.

And that is what is happening here today with Boys and Girls. 93 of you—93 of you showing us all what can be and what will be. I think it’s very important to note, there are a lot of people who never bought the hype, who believed that you are capable of great things and helped you get there. A lot of them are on stage here and in this audience – the teachers and everyone else who worked at this school – give them a round of applause, too.

[Applause]

Now, your principal, at the beginning of the year, he said to you, “Be courageous. Be focused. Believe that something greater can happen.” And you answered that call. You lived up to that expectation. And you didn’t just do it individually, you helped each other. You worked with each other. You supported each other, you tutored each other, you made sure everyone had a chance.

That’s a metaphor to me for what we’re trying to do with every school that’s had its challenges, but now is on a path to something better. We call them renewal schools – because isn’t that what we aspire to in life? Renewal – the chance to make right, even when things have gone wrong. There are 94 schools in this city we call renewal schools. They’ve all deserved more support. They’ve all deserved the kind of leadership you’re having here. They’ve all deserved a chance to get it right and we are providing them with those tools because we’re just not giving up on any school. We’re not giving up on any child.

[Applause]

I know it’s a day of celebration, but I suspect that you appreciate truth, even when the truth is not so convenient. The truth is that this society, for a long time, divided our young people into those who were supposed to be destined for success and those who weren’t going to be given every opportunity. That was morally wrong and it was destructive. It didn’t allow us to be whole. It didn’t allow us to move forward. We don’t accept those divisions. We don’t accept those inequalities. We believe every single human being has tremendous potential. Every young person can turn into something great if – from the beginning – you are reminded of that fact. Now today, you are proving it. You’re proving that there’s no school, no neighborhood, no place that has a monopoly on talent, on brainpower, on willpower. You’re proving something bigger. And I want you to know the eyes of the city are on you and you’re proving very worthy. You’re showing us all that something greater can happen.

You know here at Boys & Girls, you could feel it this year what new leadership meant, what the investments in this school meant. You could feel something different was happening. A lot of you worked, for example, with the staff from Good Shepherd Services, who came in –

[Applause]

– came in here and talked, talked to students about what they needed, what their challenges were, what their doubts were and how to help them through to the next level and to show them what the future could bring.

You’ve probably seen parents more deeply involved. I want to thank all the parents, all the PTA leadership, all the PTA members who have been a part of this school because under renewal schools, we make parent involvement a crucial piece of the equation. Because there is a proverb, there is an African proverb – it takes a village to raise a child. We need to actually live that. And that’s why we believe in a community school where parents are at the table helping their children to the finest education possible.  You could feel these changes and you knew that the school leadership and the teachers were looking at each every one of you as an individual, helping to figure out what you needed to succeed and to get to graduation day and it has worked. And we’re going keep at that. And were going build upon it. And were going ask you to come back and talk to the next class and show them the way because now – now you’re the role models for everyone behind you.

[Applause]

Now, I’m just going say one more point because I think at this point in life – this truly is one of the great days in life. This is truly one of those moments that you will remember, literally, for the rest of your days with pride and a sense of accomplishment. And I think it’s important to reflect on what it says about your role in society too. Because we always say on days like this, be a leader, be an example – but I want you to understand that those are not just broad words that should go in one ear and out the other. It’s a call to action. I mentioned at my son’s graduation that when I was sitting where you are today in 1979, when I was a high school graduate that day –

Unknown: Wow.

Mayor: I had – yeah, I know. I’m getting on in years. Thank you for noting that.

[Laughter]

I sat there and I’ve got to tell you the truth, I wanted to be hopeful – I really did – but there were so many things in the world around me that did not inspire hope. When I graduated in 1979, the Vietnam War had just ended a few years earlier. There were so many other things that made you wonder about this world. We were having troubles in my family. There were a lot of things that gave me doubt. I could feel this tug between optimism and pessimism. And I wanted to believe, but it took me years, honestly, to get the confidence to believe that I could make a difference and that some of these challenges could be taken on.

And you look at this moment in history, you would not be illogical to say, look at these challenges, look at some of the things we’re up against. How do we find hope in the midst of that? We just saw a racist attack in South Carolina that was so painful and could take away so much of our hope, but look what the members of Emanuel AME did. Look how they immediately said they would take that pain and turn it into action, how they would not let those people die in vain. Many things need to change. Thank god that these confederate flags are coming down one by one.

[Applause]

But many things have to change and it takes something in life – to see a moment of tragedy, a moment of unfairness, a moment of injustice – and not be pulled down by it, but somehow overcome it and step up. And that’s what we call for you to do. It won’t always be easy. If you feel doubt – if you feel doubt in yourself, if you feel doubt in our society, you’re perfectly normal. I felt it too – it’s overcoming that doubt and believing that there is something better we can reach and that you have to be an actor in that drama. You have to be one of the people that helps us reach it. That’s the higher level to aspire to.

I’ll finish with a couple of quotes. One is from a – it’s a powerful quote to my mind because it speaks to where we each stand in society. The great French writer, Albert Camus, he said, quote “The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.”

I want to interpret that for a second. That means take your power, take your voice, take your ability to change your society and live it out. You have the tools. You’re here today because you showed you have the tools. You have the brains, you have the focus, you have the energy. Turn that into the kind of freedom that says you will not be held down by the biases of society. You won’t be held back by people telling you what we can and cannot achieve. You will define that reality.

[Applause]

And the other quote has always moved me because it’s a reminder, you know, if you misread history, you would think that only a chosen few famous names got to make history. Most of the books, most of the movies don’t tell us the fact that it’s actually the everyday person, it’s the grassroots that make social change – that social change comes from the grassroots if it’s going to be real, which means each and every one of us matters a lot more than we’ve often been led to believe. If you look closely – if you look closely at history, voices of conscience pervade history.

A lot of times, people who are treated like they were crazy, treated like what they were saying was unreasonable and impossible, but slowly, but surely those seemingly extreme views became the mainstream – people who demanded abolition of slavery, people who demanded the right of women to vote, people who demanded that we save our environment. You name the issue, the people who made those demands were first treated as pariahs and outcasts, until little by little, their voices started to be heard and felt more deeply at the grassroots and the people started to believe and change started to happen.

So I leave you with this – each one of you has a power. It may not always be affirmed. It may not always be reinforced or validated, but you have the power. And, I’ll finish with a quote that I think summarizes so much of human history from the great anthropologist Margaret Mead. She said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.”

[Applause]

But wait, there’s a punchline. “Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” She’s talking about all 93 of you. Congratulations, graduates, and God bless you.